The official and national language of Vietnam is Vietnamese. Although it has many vocabulary similarities to Chinese and was originally written using Chinese characters, it is considered to be one of the Austroasiatic languages.

The Vietnamese language is monosyllabic. In other words, it is made up of words that have only one syllable, such as ho, which means “cough,” or kem, which is “ice cream.”

Vietnamese is also a tonal language which often sounds more than a little like singing. All languages use some form of intonation to express emphasis, emotion, or other such nuances, but very few languages use tone to distinguish the complete meaning of a word. The northern Vietnamese dialect uses six tones, while, in the south, the dialect has five tones. A word might have very different meanings depending on whether it was pronounced with a high, low, middle, rising, heavy, or flat tone. The letters “ma” are a good example of how the intonation of one’s voice changes the meaning of a word. If ma is said using a high voice, it means “mother,” but if it is said using a low voice, it means “rice plant.” And, if ma is said with a flat tone, it means “ghost.” Obviously, it is easy for beginning Vietnamese speakers to make mistakes and ask funny questions such as “Where is your ghost?” instead of “Where is your mother?” To complicate matters even more, accents differ widely across regions and from the north to the south of the country.

Even with all of its complexities, a person can learn to speak Vietnamese. In fact-although it is challenging to master-it is a beautiful and poetic language filled with rich metaphor and colloquial expressions.

How would you like to begin speaking Vietnamese right now? Trust us, it’s not as difficult as we’ve made it sound…at least for beginners who are just ready to have fun!

Get started by trying your hand-or, that should be, mouth-at the words presented in our beginner’s dictionary below.

Once difficult to find, Vietnamese language courses are becoming more and more prevalent in schools around the United States. Whether in community colleges, adult education programs, or four-year institutions, there are likely numerous opportunities for you to begin learning Vietnamese today. For example, within a four mile radius of Little Saigon, CA, there are no less than three community colleges that offer introductory Vietnamese classes. In addition, specialty language programs, such as those of the Berliz Language Centers, offer intensive language acquisition programs custom-designed to increase your language proficiency. There are more than 400 Berliz Language Centers worldwide to serve you. Admittedly, this option is mush more expensive than most local and college level classes, but with the convenience of a custom course curriculum designed to meet your needs and the availability of private tutoring, the benefits may outweigth the costs depending on your needs. To determine if the Berliz approach is best for you and to find out where their nearest Center is located, call 1-800-457-7958 for further information.